'Solid effort' propels Hens to home win

NEWARK – There were plenty of appealing numerical measurements as the Blue Hens sized up an 86-67 nonconference men's basketball victory over Robert Morris Saturday afternoon.

Most of them correlated to the fact Delaware put together likely its most solid 40 minutes of the young season.

The result was a wire-to-wire win in front of 1,823 at the Carpenter Center over a Robert Morris program that, while in a bit of a rebuilding phase this season, has been among mid-major basketball's top 10 winners over the previous six.

That's something Delaware craves to be, and showings such as Saturday's certainly lend credence to the effort.

"We came out and jumped on them early," junior point guard Jarvis Threatt said. "It's an early game [noon start] so we had to come ready. That's really what we did and it just translated to the whole game."

Threatt had 24 points, five assists and three steals while playing all 40 minutes. He entered the game as the CAA leader in assists (5.8) and steals (3.0) per game.

The Blue Hens improved to 4-3 and have won four of their last five. They have scored 80 or more points in six straight games.

"One of the bigger things is to put 50 points in the second half on that team right there, who pride themselves on defense," Delaware coach Monte Ross said of the Hens' 50-40 second-half advantage. "That's monumental for us, for our program, for our team.

"I thought that was a really, really solid effort that we put together."

Senior guard Davon Usher had 22 points and five steals in 39 minutes. Senior forward Carl Baptiste added 13 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Freshman Devonne Pinkard's nine points were a career high.

Robert Morris (3-5) has lost five of six.

Delaware shot 51.9 percent from the field (27-for-52) and also beat a path to the foul line, where it was 28-for-37 (75.7 percent). The Colonials shot 44.9 percent from the field (22-for-49) and were 16-for-25 at the line (64 percent).

Seventeen turnovers undermined the Colonials, who were also outrebounded 34-28 by the Hens, including 22-12 in the second half.

Robert Morris, the Northeast Conference regular-season titlist last season, stunned visiting Kentucky in the first round of the 2013 National Invitation Tournament. The Colonials' 141-67 record over the last six seasons is in the top 10 among mid-major programs, and includes five postseason trips, two of them to the NCAA Tournament.

Karvel Anderson, a 6-2 senior guard, had a game-high 25 points for Robert Morris.

Delaware's largest first-half lead was 18-7 en route to a 36-27 halftime edge. Robert Morris was hurt by 10 first-half turnovers, which helped fuel Delaware's 48.1-percent field-goal aim.

"I was very happy with our defensive effort in the first half, to hold them to 27, because they're a team that averages 79 points a game," Ross said. " . . . One of the things we'll keep pounding into our guys is, we're such a talented offensive team, if we can stay sharp defensively, that will be the recipe to win a lot of basketball games."

Delaware entered the game as the CAA leader in scoring (83.5 ppg), 3-point percentage (38.1) and free-throw percentage (71.7).

The Hens' second-half advantage spread to 70-52 with 6:09 remaining on Baptiste's putback. A pair of threes by Anderson pulled Robert Morris back within 70-58 with 5:27 remaining, and Ross called a timeout. The Hens' lead then increased again as Robert Morris went nearly four minutes without a field goal.

It was Delaware's final home game until New Year's Day against Liberty. The Hens visit Charleston Southern Tuesday night in the second part of a rare home-and-home nonconference set, in which they dropped the first 95-93 on Nov. 10. Then comes Saturday's visit to Notre Dame and reunion with ex-UD coach Mike Brey, in his 14th season as coach of the Irish.

"It's very important," Baptiste said of the complete effort. "Looking down the road, all these games are a learning process for the CAA, CAA tournament, and we can definitely look back on this and learn stuff from it, controlling the game. They're similar to a lot of teams we'll play in our league so it's a good learning experience and a great win."